Zeabur Cluster Scale

Zeabur Cluster Scaling (LKE / EKS Node Pools)

Node pool operations are not in the Zeabur CLI yet — call the Zeabur GraphQL API directly at https://api.zeabur.com/graphql. The API maps 1:1 onto provider primitives: a node pool is an EKS managed node group or a Linode LKE node pool.

⚠️ Scaling changes real billing — explicit confirmation is REQUIRED

Adding nodes or node pools increases the cluster's monthly subscription price; the price is recalculated automatically from the underlying provider resources after every change. You are the last line of defense: never run a mutation until the user has explicitly confirmed the exact change.

Before any mutation, present all of the following in one message:

• Cluster (name + server ID)
• Node pool (instance type + current node count)
• The exact change (e.g. 3 → 5 nodes, or "add pool g6-standard-4 × 2")
• Current monthly price (from Server.price) and that it will increase/decrease automatically after the change

Then ask a direct yes/no question, for example:

You are about to scale node pool g6-standard-4 on cluster my-cluster from 3 to 5 nodes. Your current price is US$180/month and will increase roughly proportionally. Confirm?

Never infer consent from an ambiguous reply. A bare "ok" before seeing concrete numbers does NOT count. When in doubt, re-confirm instead of mutating.

Authentication

All requests need a Bearer token. Keep the token out of the process list — write it into a 0600 curl config and pass that with -K, instead of putting -H "Authorization: ..." on the command line:

TOKEN="${ZEABUR_API_KEY:-$(grep '^token:' ~/.config/zeabur/cli.yaml | awk '{print $2}')}"
ZAPI_CFG=$(mktemp)
chmod 600 "$ZAPI_CFG"
printf 'header = "Authorization: Bearer %s"\n' "$TOKEN" > "$ZAPI_CFG"
unset TOKEN

• Prefer the ZEABUR_API_KEY environment variable if set
• Otherwise reuse the CLI token from ~/.config/zeabur/cli.yaml (present after npx zeabur@latest auth login — use the zeabur-auth skill if the user is not logged in)
• Each tool/Bash invocation is a fresh shell — run this setup in the same shell block as the requests that use $ZAPI_CFG, and rm -f "$ZAPI_CFG" when done

All node pool mutations require manage access to the cluster (owner or admin). Collaborators with view-only access can list pools but not change them.

1. Find the cluster's server ID

npx zeabur@latest server list -i=false

Only dedicated Kubernetes clusters (LKE / EKS) have node pools. If unsure whether a server is a cluster, check clusterType in the query below — clusters return "dedicated_cluster" and a non-empty nodePools.

2. List node pools

curl -sS --max-time 30 -K "$ZAPI_CFG" https://api.zeabur.com/graphql \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"query($id: ObjectID!) { server(_id: $id) { name clusterType price nodePools { id instanceType nodeCount minNodes maxNodes readyNodes status } } }","variables":{"id":"<server-id>"}}'

Field notes:

• id — the provider-side identifier (EKS node group name, or LKE node pool ID). Pass it as nodePoolID in the mutations below.
• instanceType — provider machine type backing the pool (e.g. t3.2xlarge for EKS, g6-standard-4 for LKE)
• nodeCount vs readyNodes — desired vs currently-in-service. They differ while a scale operation is in progress.
• minNodes / maxNodes — autoscaling floor/ceiling; both 0 when autoscaling is not configured
• price — the cluster's current monthly subscription price; quote it in the confirmation message

3. Scale an existing node pool

The most common operation — changes the node count of a pool in place:

curl -sS --max-time 30 -K "$ZAPI_CFG" https://api.zeabur.com/graphql \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"mutation($sid: ObjectID!, $pid: String!, $n: Int!) { scaleNodePool(serverID: $sid, nodePoolID: $pid, nodeCount: $n) }","variables":{"sid":"<server-id>","pid":"<node-pool-id>","n":5}}'

After mutating, poll the list query every ~30 seconds until readyNodes equals the new nodeCount and the pool status is healthy (ACTIVE for EKS, ready for LKE) — provisioning typically takes a few minutes. Bound the wait: if the pool reports a failed/degraded status, stop immediately and relay it; if it has not converged after ~15 minutes, stop polling and report the current state instead of waiting forever. On success, report the updated pool and price to the user.

If a mutation request times out or fails at the transport layer, never blind-retry. The change may have been applied server-side — re-fetch the node pool list first, and only retry if the state shows the change did not happen. Blind-retrying addNodePool can double-provision (and double-bill); blind-retrying removeNodePool can hit a second pool if IDs were reused from a stale list.

Scaling down: warn the user that removed nodes are drained and their workloads reschedule onto the remaining nodes — make sure remaining capacity fits the current workload (check with the zeabur-service-metric skill if needed). Never scale the cluster's only pool to 0.

4. Add a node pool

Use when the user needs a different machine type (e.g. adding bigger or GPU nodes) rather than more of the same:

curl -sS --max-time 30 -K "$ZAPI_CFG" https://api.zeabur.com/graphql \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"mutation($sid: ObjectID!, $t: String!, $n: Int!) { addNodePool(serverID: $sid, instanceType: $t, nodeCount: $n) { id instanceType nodeCount status } }","variables":{"sid":"<server-id>","t":"g6-standard-4","n":2}}'

instanceType is passed through to the provider verbatim — you are expected to look up a valid type first:

• LKE (Linode): curl -s https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/types — public, no auth. Use the type id (e.g. g6-standard-4, g6-dedicated-8).
• EKS (AWS): any EC2 instance type available in the cluster's region (e.g. t3.2xlarge, m6i.xlarge). When unsure, ask the user or match the instance type of an existing pool.

An invalid or out-of-region instance type fails at the provider — the error message is passed through in the GraphQL errors array.

5. Remove a node pool

Destructive. All nodes in the pool are drained and deleted; workloads reschedule onto the remaining pools. Never remove the last node pool of a cluster. Requires the same explicit confirmation as above, plus naming the pool being removed.

curl -sS --max-time 30 -K "$ZAPI_CFG" https://api.zeabur.com/graphql \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"mutation($sid: ObjectID!, $pid: String!) { removeNodePool(serverID: $sid, nodePoolID: $pid) }","variables":{"sid":"<server-id>","pid":"<node-pool-id>"}}'

Completion check for removal: poll the list query (same bounds as above) until the pool no longer appears in nodePools, then report the updated price.

Recommended guidance flow

When the user asks to scale (or complains about capacity):

1. Show current state first — list node pools with ready counts and the current monthly price
2. Propose a concrete change — which pool, what count (or what new instance type), and the billing impact
3. Get explicit confirmation — see the confirmation requirements at the top
4. Mutate, then watch — poll with the bounds above until the operation-specific completion check passes (scale/add: readyNodes matches and status healthy; remove: pool gone from the list); report completion and the updated price

Errors

• 401 / unauthenticated — token missing or expired: re-run npx zeabur@latest auth login or check ZEABUR_API_KEY
• "requires manage access" — the user is not the cluster's owner/admin; they must ask the owner to perform the change
• Empty nodePools — the server is not a dedicated Kubernetes cluster (single-VM dedicated servers cannot be scaled this way; suggest zeabur-server-rent for renting more capacity)
• Provider-side errors (invalid instance type, capacity unavailable in region) are surfaced verbatim in the GraphQL errors array — relay them to the user and suggest an alternative type/region